copied and pasted from ast-ss.com
Creatine Serum Report - PART I
by Paul Delia
Founder and President, AST Sports Science
Here's what they claim for the creatine serum and here are the facts:
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Claim
Serum: No loading - take just minutes before exercise.
Powder: Loading required - must be taken in large amounts for 5 days prior to exercise.
Supports For Their Claim
None - No
scientific studies or data backs up their claim that there is no need to load with Creatine Serum. In other words, they made this up to convince you to buy it.
Fact
You don't have to load with any creatine. It's not mandatory. However, scientific studies show that you can achieve maximum muscle creatine saturation in 5 days through a 5 gram - 4 times a day protocol. Scientific studies also show you can achieve muscle creatine saturation by taking 3 grams once a day for 30 days. Each way has its advantages and diadvatages.
So their claim that there is no need to load with the serum verses a need to load with powdered creatine is completely misleading and void of the physiological facts involving the body's utilization of creatine. If you want to achieve muscle creatine saturation in the same amount of time you will have to go through the loading phase with the serum just as you do with the powder. It's that simple. It does not matter if it's in a liquid form or not. You body utilizes it the same way.
For this company to insinuate that their creatine somehow acts differently in the body than creatine powder is pure wishful thinking on their part. Or attempted deception on their part. I guess it depends on how you look at it. They're either deceiving you or they're just totally inept and actually believe what they are saying.
A simple "show me the science" will leave you and them empty handed.
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Claim
Serum: No maintenance - take only on training days
Powder: Daily maintenance - must be taken even on non-training days.
Supports For Their Claim
None - No scientific studies show that their creatine serum does not need to be taken on days you don't train. They also made this up to convince you to buy it. Why wouldn't you need to take it on non-training days?
Fact
They are trying to convince you that just because it's a liquid there is no need to take it on days you don't train, but you must take the powder on days you don't train to achieve the same results. Again this is another very misleading statement. And it's simply not true. Creatine will saturate your muscle cells whether you train or not. Taking the creatine serum on training days and not non training days would act exactly the same as taking powdered creatine on training days and not on non training days. Because the Creatine Serum is in a liquid form does not add any special ability to the creatine that would enable you to only have to take it on training days. If you want a continual creatine supply to the muscles you will need to take it every day. The liquid medium does not change this.
By making this claim they are trying to mislead you into thinking that their product is superior when no evidence even comes close to suggesting this. In fact, the science indicates the exact opposite due to creatine's rapid degradation in a liquid medium.
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Claim
Serum: Instant absorption.
Powder: Takes one hour or more to digest.
Supports For Their Claim
None - No scientific studies show that their creatine serum is absorbed instantly or any faster than powdered creatine. Again, they made this claim up too.
Fact Just because it's a liquid does not mean your body does not have to digest it. That's absurd. In fact, there is no evidence and certainly no scientific study showing that this creatine serum is absorbed, enters the bloodstream, or saturates muscle tissue any faster than powdered creatine.
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Claim
Serum: Completely assimilated into the muscles in minutes.
Powder: 50% wasted during the digestion process.
Supports For Their Claim
None - No scientific studies show that their creatine serum is assimilated into the muscles in minutes and no science shows that creatine powder is 50% wasted in the digestion process. In other words, this has no truth backing it whatsoever.
Fact
It is physiologically impossible for this creatine serum to be "Completely assimilated into the muscles in minutes". That would be nice, but even an intravenous injection would not enable this to happen. And nowhere in the scientific research is there any indication that 50% of powdered creatine is wasted during digestion. They just made this one up as well. Like all the other claims so far, they completely made it up with no means or scientific data to back it up. None.
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Claim
Serum: 100% stable - 2 year shelf life.
Powder: Unstable - rapidly degrades into waste product creatinine.
Supports For Their Claim
None - No scientific studies show that their creatine serum is stable at all much less that it has a 2 year shelf life. There are specific FDA protocols that are used to establish "shelf life" and I am not aware of any stability testing done on this product.
Fact
I have no idea if it's stable for 2 days or 2 years. I do know that creatine in a liquid will rapidly degrade into creatinine in a matter of days. And Creatine Serum is in a liquid. Until it is validated that it is stable and will not degrade I can only assume that the scientific and chemical reference books are correct and that it will degrade as quickly as any creatine that is put into a liquid.
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Claim
Serum: Does not cause water retention, bloating or cramping.
Powder: Causes water retention resulting in dehydration, bloating and cramping.
Supports For Their Claim
None - No scientific studies indicate that Creatine Serum works any differently than creatine powder. In fact, it's physiologically impossible and to suggest that it does is completely untrue.
Fact
Creatine in a liquid, if it remained stable (and this is a big "IF"), would act no differently in the body than creatine in a powder form. Their own statement about powder creatine, "Causes water retention resulting in dehydration, bloating and cramping.", is incorrect, contradictory, and misleading. If creatine causes water retention then how can it cause dehydration? And we are back to the fact that the creatine molecule is the same whether it's in a liquid medium or a powder, so it will impart the same physiological effect either way.
Because creatine is in a liquid does not mean it will function any differently. Also, the negatives listed on their bottle for powder creatine are simply not true and have no scientific validity.
That's like saying, "Muscle turns to fat, but if you take my product muscle will not turn to fat." If it's physiologically impossible for muscle to turn into fat in the first place how is taking my product going to stop something that would never happen? Call this what you want, but I call it a blatant misleading statement designed to sell you on a product by giving it virtues that don't exist.
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Claim
Serum: Stay with your normal water intake.
Powder: Must consume extra water to counteract dehydration.
Supports For Their Claim
None - No scientific studies indicate that Creatine Serum works any differently (if at all) than powdered creatine. No studies suggest you need to consume any less water with Creatine Serum than with powdered creatine. They made this one up too.
Fact
Creatine imparts a portion of its benefit by its ability to hyper-hydrate the muscle cell. You consume extra water while
taking creatine to assist this hyper-hydration. You don't drink extra water to prevent dehydration because of the creatine. As I said before, the creatine molecule is the same regardless of what medium it is delivered in. If you could maintain a stable creatine solution then its physiological effect on the body would be no different than creatine in a powder form. So to take full advantage of a "liquid" creatine you would need extra fluid to assist the creatine's effect on hydrating the muscle cell.
If creatine caused dehydration it would cause this whether it was in a powder form or liquid form. It would not be because of the powder. It would be because of creatine's physiological effect on the body. But there is no scientific evidence indicating that creatine causes dehydration.
They are trying to instill some magic quality to Creatine Serum and at the same time bucking the physiological effects creatine, in any form, has on muscle hydration. It's like saying, "Fertilize your lawn with this 'special' fertilizer and you won't have to water your lawn in the summer time like you do with the other fertilizers". Grass needs water in the summer regardless of the type of fertilizer and when taking creatine your body needs fluid to provide the extra hydration (not to counteract dehydration) to the muscle cells no matter what type of creatine it is.
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continued.....
but anyway, she gave me some brouchers on creatine serum. It has a safety comparison aswell:
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